


The Little Things

by Traeger



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-28
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2018-03-20 02:25:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3633216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traeger/pseuds/Traeger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiroshi isn't the only one hiding something in his workshop. Asami goes back to retrieve one last secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Things

Asami flicks the switch on. The light sheen of dust covering every surface speaks of its disuse. She glances around. It looks exactly the same. As though everything that happened those few years ago never did.

Her eyes move to the centre. It is an unremarkable section, smooth and dusty like the rest of the workshop. But she knows what lay beneath it all those years ago; it has been filled up since.

She knows she ought to clear the place out one day but she cannot bring herself to do it. It is the representation of all of her father. The good and bad. _Her father_. Her breath hitches. She closes her eyes. Tears flow down her cheeks unbidden.

She walks slowly to one of the metal cabinet and opens it. Little boxes lined neatly in rows greet her. She barely recognises the handwritten labels on them as her own, vaguely noting that her handwriting doesn’t slant that much to the left now as it did then.

 _Screws on the top shelf, nuts in the middle, and washers in the last_. All arranged perfectly in order according to sizes. All her doing.

Many people did not know it, but Hiroshi Sato, brilliant as he is – _was_ – Asami catches herself, was quite the slob when it came to his work tools. He was always missing his screwdrivers and could never find the right adaptor size for his torque wrench. His desk would be littered with design drafts haphazardly strewn all over. It was a private joke between the two of them that industrial espionage would never be a problem for them; no one would be able to make head or tail of it all.

No one, that is, except Asami Sato.

The shelves she now stands in front of were a gift when she was ten years old. _Now, you’ll never misplace your things again papa,_ she had said. Her father had broken down right then and there when he laid his eyes on it. She didn’t understand it then. She does now.

Her mother had been a perfectionist.

Taking a deep breath, she grips the door hard as the memories come rushing back to her. For a moment, she forgets why she is here. But she does remember, and she reaches for the toolbox right at the bottom of the cupboard. She flips it open. It is still there.

Something clenches in her chest, a tight feeling. Inside lies a small cube of metal welded together with words on them. _Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently_ , it said. The words are also welded on, the melted metal of each letter the same width. Perfect.

Many people did not know it, but Asami, brilliant as she is, could not weld to save her life. Each time she would burn a hole right through, or the welds turned out ugly and misshapen. Each time Hiroshi would patiently guide her hand again, repeating those very words to encourage her. No one knew how much she had struggled, failing over and over again.

No one, that is, except Hiroshi Sato.

This metal cube with those meaningful words was meant as a gift for his birthday, a reflection of his patience and her effort. It had taken a long time to complete it. She had known he would go to his workshop to tinker and would need the toolbox.

The secret underground factory was discovered three days before his birthday.

She takes the cube and closes the cupboard carefully. She realises that she never told him how she welded an airship’s rudder and a sandsailer. He would never know. Taking one last long look at the workshop, she closes the door.

Later she drops by the factory, dropping off some paperwork. As she heads out, she passes by the blueprint of the original dragonfly hummingbird. She remembers how they fixed the plasma saws together.

 _He does know,_ she blinks, fighting back tears once more.

Later that night, on Air Temple Island, Korra helps to carry her bag.

“Whoa, Asami what do you have in here, a rock?”

Asami takes it out and shows her.

“It’s beautiful,” Korra traces the words lightly with her fingers and looks up to meet the wistful jade eyes. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently,” she read aloud. “Did your dad do this? Or you?”

“We did it together.”

**Author's Note:**

> Asami is always written as this super duper brilliant and perfect engineer, inventor and businesswoman. I'd figure she struggled with some things too. I picked welding because from personal experience, that shit is harder than it looks. Easy enough to get the hang of it, but difficult to master (there's even a qualification of its own for it).
> 
> The wonderful quotation was lifted from Henry Ford.


End file.
